Necromancy
by S-Michael
Summary: Necromancers are mythic sorcerers with the power to control the dead and the undead...including ghosts...
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: I meant to see _School's Out, Ghoul's Out_, but didn't. Normally, I wouldn't mention this, but Freakshow does come up in this fic. I suppose that I could wait until I see it and then fix anything that's wrong, but 1) that would mean waiting god knows how long to publish this, and 2) this story is more than 13,000 words long! (I say 12,500 in the Author's Commentary because I wasn't counting the Author's Commentary; likewise, I'm not counting the Author's Note in this estimation.) I do not feel like going through and fixing _that!_ Anyway, the point is, that if anything here is inconsistent with the canon, well, it's because I didn't see it.

Necromancy

S-Michael

Most kids had a celebration of some sort when they turned fourteen. Alex Gentry had a rite of passage. He looked through the world's largest and most secret ghost database when other kids his age would be having cake.

"Tecnis…no. Skulker…just doesn't feel right. Ah, ha!"

"You found one you like, little bro?" his older brother, Andy, asked.

"Look at this," he flipped the screen around. "His name is Plasmius, and he is perfect."

Andy looked at the profile. "He seems pretty powerful. You think you can take him?"

"He's relatively new, just appeared on the scene twenty years ago out of nowhere and quickly made a name for himself," Alex said. "He's big in the ghost community, and considering how little we know about him, it's a good bet that he doesn't know anything about us. I'll take him completely by surprise."

"I see. Quickly made a name for himself, did he? Just like somebody I know wants to do?" Andy asked.

Alex smiled. "Tell me it doesn't smack of prophesy, I dare you. A ghost on the fast track to dominance tagged and bagged by a necromancer on the fast track to dominance."

Andy laughed. "You're full of yourself, little brother. Take Beau; you'll need someone to phase you through walls and other ghost stuff."

"If you insist," Alex said.

"So haughty you are. If you fumble this, I am going to laugh in your face so hard…"

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Vlad's mischief for the night was done, and he was returning home to turn human and go to bed. Still in ghost form, he opened the door to his lobby, old habits dying hard and all. There was a boy in there, a boy with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail dressed in black. He jumped and looked at Vlad. He had thick black lines under his eyes, like a football player, but everything else about him screamed "Goth."

"Thank the gods it's you," the boy said. "For a second, I thought the owner came home. Imagine me explaining to Mr. Masters why I was in his house."

Vlad was temporarily taken aback by this: few people weren't in some way afraid of ghosts; very, _very_ few people would be _relieved_ to see one instead of a living human, especially _this_ ghost.

"What are you doing at my computer?" Vlad demanded.

"_Your_ computer?" the boy raised an eyebrow. "Oh, I get it. You have some sort of 'living' arrangement with Mr. Masters, don't you? Don't worry, Plasmius; when you belong to me, I'll let you move your stuff in. Oh, and I saw your little screensaver; she's cute, by the way."

"You think you can capture and own Plasmius? What are you thinking, kid?" Vlad asked.

The boy chanted: "_By the strength of my will, I bind you/By the strength of my blood, I bind you/B the strength of my faith, I bind you/By the strength of my words, I bind you/By the rhythm of Earth, I bind you/By the rhythm of Life, I bind you/By the rhythm of Death, I bind you/By the rhythm of Time, I bind you/As a Lord of the Dead, I bind you._"

"Was that supposed to do something?" Vlad asked impatiently.

The boy stared. "Impossible! How can you resist a necromancer's spell so…so easily?" he demanded.

"A necromancer, you say? Fascinating. I didn't believe your kind even existed. I must dissect you," Vlad said. If he was telling the truth, this could give Vlad incalculable power. If he were lying…well, that's what he got for breaking into Vlad's house.

Vlad attacked, the boy dodged. He attacked again, the boy dodged again. He was quick and agile, but he was only human. Attack, dodge, attack, dodge, attack, dodge, attack, dodge, attack, dodge, attack, dodge, attack, dodge. The boy was now back where he started. Was he going to keep going in a big circle? Vlad attacked again, the boy backed up, grinning. _What the…?_ Vlad hit an invisible wall. The floor began to glow under him; he looked down, and saw some sort of pattern on the ground.

"What is that?" Vlad demanded.

"That is an octogram," the boy said. "You know, like a pentagram, but octo instead of penta? You're trapped inside of it, Plasmius; no ghost can escape. I don't know how you resisted my binding spell, but now I have the leisure to try something else."

"No _ghost_ can escape this trap of yours, eh?" Vlad asked.

The boy smiled arrogantly. "That's right, Plasmius baby. You're trapped, and soon you will be mine to command."

Vlad grinned. "I fear you may have underestimated me, my boy. You see, I am not only a ghost," he said.

"Oh? That would explain why your energy is so weird--" his jaw dropped and his eyes widened as Vlad changed into his human form, then calmly walked out of the octogram, which faded into nothing. He trembled with fright. Odd, that a human could scare him when a ghost could not. "N-no. It can't be. You…you're extinct. We killed off the last of your kind centuries ago."

So there were once humans who could turn into ghosts, the way Vlad could? "Is that so? Interesting." He stayed in human form as he approached the boy; this seemed to disturb him more, anyway.

The boy, panicked, waved his arms in the air. Not sure what this would do, assuming it wasn't sheer terror, Vlad hesitated. A rift to the Ghost Zone opened, ant the boy jumped inside. It closed before Vlad could follow.

Ah, well. There was no hurry. Now that Vlad knew that these necromancers existed, he could take advantage of their existence, but that required a plan. First, though, he needed to go to bed. He doubted that the boy would be back this night, but he turned on all the ghost alarms, just to be safe.

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"And you are sure of this, Alex?" the old woman asked.

"Yes, Grandmother. Vlad Masters, alias Vlad Plasmius, is a hellion," Alex said. Hellions got their name from the Norse goddess Hel, who was said to be half-living, half-dead. Christians thought hellions were a kind of demon, and they were closer to the truth than they realized. The hellions served Pariah Dark, the Ghost King, ancient enemy of the necromancers. When Dark was defeated, the necromancer clans hunted and killed every last one of them…or so they thought.

"This is grim news indeed," the iron-fisted matriarch of the Gentry clan said. She sighed. "Plasmius/Masters has made lots of trips to a California town named Amity Park in recent months. I order you and your family to go there and pose as a normal family while you dig up anything you can about this hellion and whatever he is doing out there."

Alex felt his heart sank, knowing that his family was going to hate him for this, but he knew better than to try to argue with Grandmother.

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Alex had been home schooled his entire life, and on his first day at Amity Park, he realized that he didn't particularly like high school. People stared and whispered. At first he wondered if they sensed something about him, but then he realized that he just had horrid fashion sense. Well, sue him for not caring enough to see if his clothes matched. He could piece together outfits when he wanted to, but those outfits were meant to shock and awe, to convey a sense of nobility, to say "I am a Lord of the Dead; worship me," which was exactly what he didn't want here. Besides, they were also pretty much monochromatic black. He was supposed to be undercover. Don't pay attention to me, I'm just an average ordinary high-school student. I don't raise zombies or trap ghosts, and I've certainly never consorted with any vampires.

He decided he would not ever wear black to this school. He didn't want his cover to slip. A bit paranoid, maybe, but there was something at Casper High. Something similar to Vlad, Alex could sense it. They had the same essence, Vlad and whatever it was. _Not _what_ever; _who_ever,_ he corrected himself with a chill. Dear gods. More hellions? How may of the vile creatures hid, waiting, plotting their revenge on necromancer kind?

Alex walked into the cafeteria, and froze. There he was. The hellion. He could practically see the power that engulfed him. What's more, Alex recognized this boy. Before coming to California on assignment, Alex did as much research into Vlad's associates as he could. Top of that list was Jack Fenton, Maddie Fenton (the woman from the screensaver, as well as pictures all over Vlad's house), and their children, Jasmine and Danny Fenton. _I'm an idiot! Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom--how did I not see this before!_ Danny Phantom was a ghost that popped up a lot in Amity Park (which makes sense since he lives here), sometimes doing good, sometimes doing bad. It was hard to say which one was intentional, but since he was a hellion, Alex could venture a guess and say it was the latter.

_I will not be afraid._ So what if this seemingly-average kid was in actuality a bloodthirsty monster, the world of necromancy's equivalent of a boogieman?_ I will not run. Not like I did when I faced Vlad._ Just to prove he wasn't afraid, he decided to sit with Danny and friends. His female friend was cute, and Gothic. The black clothes, pale skin, and makeup reminded him of home. He could pretend that this was just another necromancer court function (necromancers called themselves the Lords of the Dead, and considered themselves to be a sort of nobility--it's not surprising that they would act the part). He schooled his face, so that he would only show what emotions he wanted to show.

He approached the table. This was stupid, he knew. The safe thing to do would have been to go to his parents with this information before confronting the new hellion. He didn't want to do the safe thing, though. Ever since running from Vlad, he felt like a total loser. A voice inside of his head kept calling him a coward, kept saying that he should have stayed and fought. In order to prove to himself that he wasn't a coward, he was doing something incredibly foolish. He was going to sup with the enemy. Uh, lunch. Whatever!

He sat down next to the girl, and smiled. "Hi, my name is Alex Gentry. We haven't met because I'm new; I just started today, in fact. What's your name?"

"Uh, Sam Manson," the girl said. "These are my friends, Danny Fenton and Tucker Foley."

"Nice to meet you," Alex said. "Say, Sam, you want to go out sometime?"

Danny nearly spit up the milk he was drinking; Tucker stared at Alex.

"Wow, you're abrupt," Sam said.

Alex shrugged. "What can I say? I do things my own way."

"Sorry, but I just met you," Sam said.

"It's alright. I didn't really expect a 'yes,' anyway…yet," Alex said. "So, what's there to do around here?" He drew an octogram on the underside of the table with a pencil as he spoke.

"Well, there's the movie theater, the mall, the arcade _in_ the mall, and, uh…well, that's about it. Normally, we just hang out by the Nasty Burger," Tucker said.

"Uh-uh," Alex said. He finished the octogram and willed it _hear_. "I've got to go the bathroom." Even when he was out of earshot, the charm allowed him to hear what was being said.

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"Quick, while he's in the bathroom, how did it go last night?" Tuck asked as soon as the new kid was in the bathroom.

"It was just the Box Ghost," Danny said quickly.

"Is something bothering you?" Sam asked, reading him like a book.

"I sense something," Danny said.

"A ghost?" Tuck asked.

"Maybe, but something is wrong about it. At first I thought it was that new kid, but Alex is gone and it's still here," Danny said.

"Well, if it's not a ghost, what else could it be?" Sam asked.

Danny shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe my ghost sense is just acting up?"

"Probably just a kind of ghost that we haven't encountered yet," Tuck said. "I mean, they seem to have an alarming amount of variety: ghost dragons, ghost genies, ghosts that can only be seen by children, ghosts that can control people through music--"

"I get the idea," Danny said.

"Whatever this ghost is, it doesn't seem to be causing any harm," Sam said. "I mean, usually when a ghost shows up, people start running and screaming. Maybe it's friendly?"

Danny shrugged. "I suppose I could give it the benefit of a doubt, but I'm keeping my guard up, just in case."

Alex returned from the bathroom, smiling. "Hey, guys. Did I miss anything?"

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"Some associates of Vlad Masters live around here," Ann Gentry, Alex's mother, said. Aaron nodded. "Now, keep your eyes open so that we can find their address…"

Fenton Works came into sight. "Or it may stand out like a slap in the face," her husband said.

"Ye gods," Ann breathed. "Well, lets go."

Aaron got out of the car and followed his wife to the Fenton's front door. They shivered simultaneously and looked at each other. "A ghost shield?" he asked.

"Weird," Ann said. "Well, only one way to find out what's going on here," she knocked on the door.

Jack Fenton came to the door.

"Hi," Ann said. "We're new in town, and when we heard that some ghost hunters lived in town, we thought it was a good opportunity to talk shop."

"You two are ghost hunters?" Jack asked. "Where are your hazmat suits?"

"Uh, most professional ghost hunters don't wear hazmat suits," Aaron said.

"We're not really normal," Maddie Fenton said, coming to the door.

Aaron smiled, "You should see _our_ family."

"So, what tricks do you use to find ghosts?" Jack asked.

"Oh, the usual," Ann lied. "Thermal imaging, cameras, tape recorders, that sort of thing."

"Tape recorders? EVP, I trust?" Maddie asked.

"Naturally," Aaron said.

"Not that Electronic Voice Phenomenon is very reliable," Ann added. "Too much static, and it relies too much on interpretations. What sounds like 'get out' to one person sounds like white noise to another."

"So, how do _you_ go about it?" Aaron asked.

"We're a little more high-tech," Maddie said. They talked about many of the devices that they had invented.

"Ghost Portal, you say?" Ann asked.

"It's supposed to open a hole into the dimension where ghosts live, what we call the Ghost Zone," Jack said. "But it doesn't work."

Aaron and Ann traded a look. "I think we would like to see it," Ann said.

"Well, normally we don't just show it to anyone," Jack said. "But what the hey. We don't have fellow ghost hunters in town every day, after all."

They went down into the basement, where Jack showed the two necromancers the setup of his ghost portal. "It only opens if someone with DNA matching that in the database presses their palm here, like this," he showed them, and the ghost portal opened, allowing a specter into the world of the living.

Aaron and Ann traded another look. _How could they have missed that?_ "Um, you said that this thing doesn't work?" Aaron asked.

"Just a tube to nowhere. With the word 'Fenton' on it," Jack said.

These people were obviously not in the least bit psychic.

"Let's talk ghost shield," Ann said.

"Uh, did we tell you about the ghost shield?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, upstairs," Aaron lied.

"Obviously. How else would we have known about it?" Ann added.

So they went upstairs and talked about the ghost shield, which was located in the attic. The Fentons showed them around, showed them how various inventions worked, and then the Gentrys had to leave.

"Nice people," Aaron commented.

"Yeah," Ann said. "You really have to wonder what they would be doing being associated with the likes of Vlad Masters/Plasmius."

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Not only was he a hellion, but he had a ghost sense! It just wasn't fair! Alex did his best to suppress his power levels, to stay below Danny's ghost sense radar, the rest of the day. Luckily, he didn't realize what Alex was. Luckier still, he had picked up on Alex's charm and thought that it meant that meant that what he sensed wasn't Alex. Luckiest of all, he had said as much before Alex had a chance to do something _really_ stupid and blow his cover to the enemy. Thinking of how narrowly he had escaped exposure, Alex shuddered.

"The hellions have ghost sense now?" Ann Gentry demanded.

"So it would appear, Mother," Alex said.

"That would explain how they have been escaping detection for all these centuries," Aaron Gentry said. "But where did Danny Phantom come from? Your mother and I were just over at the Fenton's house, and both of his parents are just normal people. Nothing preternatural about either of them."

"There are only two creatures like him in the world that we have found so far, and the other one is hopelessly in love with this one's mother. It doesn't take a genius to figure this equation out," Alex said.

"You think that Vlad is Danny's dad?" Aaron asked.

"It's the only thing that makes sense," Alex said.

"Maybe not," Andy said. "Jack and Maddie Fenton are brilliant scientists, right? Maybe they got their hands on some hellion DNA--"

"--and used their best friend and son as human guinea pigs?" Anita, Alex's little sister, piped in. "What are you, stupid?"

"Danny did not recognize Alex for what he was," Andy said. "Don't you think, if these people have been hiding from us for centuries, that someone would have taught the boy to recognize his natural enemy? What if the reason we never ran into them before is because there are only two of them -- Vlad and Danny?"

"Hey, yeah," Aaron said. "Jack seems like a total idiot, but if Vlad is really in love with Mrs. Fenton, he may well do anything she asked of him, and Danny wouldn't have much of a say in the matter, especially if the gene therapy happened when he was young or still in the womb."

"Maddie Fenton isn't known to be a geneticist, though," Ann said. "Neither is her husband, for that matter."

"So we're back to my theory," Alex said. "Vlad is Danny's father."

"Doesn't seem to be a very devoted father," Aaron said.

"Perhaps we can use that to our advantage," Ann said. "Pit them against each other, you know? If we're lucky, they'll kill each other off."

"What, and lose our only lead?" Andy asked.

"Good point," Aaron said.

"We will send the news to Mother, and await orders," Ann said. "Until then, I want everyone to keep a low profile. Alex, since you have already made contact with the enemy, I want you to keep tabs on him--but make sure to suppress your power."

"How am I supposed to keep tabs on him while keeping my powers in check? I doubt that he'll just tell me his secrets," Alex said.

Ann smiled at her son, "Be creative."

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_Be creative, she says!_ Alex thought. The first idea he had was to use electronic surveillance equipment, but he didn't want to do anything that could be believed and then, you know, proven in court. _Why, Your Honor, the reason I was stalking Daniel Fenton is actually very simple; he is a hellion, an evil creature that can change from human to ghost and back at will. Will you please let me go free so that I can destroy him now?_

He was hit with inspiration in gym class. "May I use the bathroom?" he asked. The gym teacher waved him out. He went into the locker room and found Danny's locker. He opened a hole to the Ghost Zone and summoned Beau into the world of the living. "Phase through that locker and give me Danny Fenton's history book," he ordered.

The ghost did as he was bid. Alex ripped the endpaper from the cover and drew an octogram on the inside of it, writing a complicated spell into it. "Pin," Alex ordered. Beau, like any good servant, had anticipated his master's needs, and handed the pin to Alex without a second's hesitation. Alex pricked his finger and squeezed until a drop of blood fell into the octogram. "Glue stick." Beau handed him a glue stick, which Alex used to glue the endpaper back to the cover. "There. Good as new." He slammed the book shut. "Put it back where you found it, and then go home." Alex returned to gym class.

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"Where did this guy _come from_?" Tuck asked. Alex had run seven touchdowns, virtually all from the opposite end of the field. They were playing flag football in the gym. The fact that they were in the gym and hence on a hard wood floor was part of the reason it was flag football, the other part was that some of the people playing were on the school team.

"What took you so long?" the gym teacher asked when Alex returned from the bathroom.

Alex smiled sheepishly. "Washing my hands. Hygiene, you know?" he jogged out to where Danny and Tuck were. "Hey, guys, we still winning?"

"We were four touchdowns up when you left--what do you think?" Danny asked.

"Are we still four up?" Alex asked.

"Three," Danny said.

The teacher blew his whistle. The teams went into formation. Danny's team's quarterback gave the ball to Alex, who ran directly at two big football players. He nimbly dodged between them, only to be tackled by Dash. The teacher blew his whistle. "Dash, we're playing _flag_ football!"

"Sorry, coach. Instinct, you know?" Dash said.

"I'm alright," Alex said emotionlessly. "Nothing hurt but my pride."

"You sure?" the teacher asked.

Alex nodded. "Seriously. No need to punish…Dash, was it?"

The teacher nodded. "If you say so." He blew his whistle. With anyone but a football player, he wouldn't have looked the other way like that.

Alex got up and walked to their side of the field, his expression cold.

"Hey, are you sure you're alright, man?" Danny asked.

Alex looked at him, and something in his expression made Danny shiver. "There's something I haven't told you about myself…I don't like to lose."

"We're still three up," Danny said.

"He humiliated me," Alex insisted.

"Alex, he's the quarterback of the school team. Of course he's better than you; they don't give that position to just anyone," Danny said.

Alex glared at Danny. "He is _not_ better than I am," he said. "I am faster, smarter, more agile, and stronger--"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Stronger?"

"--of will than he is. I _will_ get even," Alex said.

"Um, you do that," Danny said. _Okay, that was kind of freaky._

They got back on sides and into position. "Hut…hut…hike."

Alex spoke loudly and quickly: "One Apple Two Apple Three Apple Four Apple Five Apple," and then he charged. There was a surge of that strange energy as he dodged around the guards, stole the ball _right out of Dash's hands_, and ran for a touchdown.

"That boy ain't human," Tuck said.

"You ever thought about joining the football team?" Dash asked.

"Sorry, I have a job after school." Alex smiled, his usual friendly self, all traces of the dark, cold side of himself that he had shown to Danny was gone. It made Danny wonder if it wasn't always hidden just under the surface.

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"What is it, Danny?" Sam asked.

"That ghost, or whatever it is, it's back. I can feel it, but I can't see it or anything. It seems to be following me around," Danny shook his head.

"A fan, maybe?" Sam asked.

"Then why hasn't it shown itself?" Danny asked. "I think it might have some sort of connection with Alex."

"What makes you say that?" Sam asked.

Danny told her about what he saw and sensed. "Even if he's not connected with the ghost, there is something wrong with him."


	2. Chapter 2

Alex thought about what he had just heard Danny and Sam talking about. _Was_ there something wrong with him? Was it abnormal to be capable of being utterly ruthless? Maybe for a normal person, he thought, but necromancers were not normal people. He was raised to be a Lord of the Dead. Raised to fight, raised to rule, raised to be better than the world around him, raised to, when necessary, kill. Necromancers were the nobility of the dark, hidden places of the world. They had to be able to survive in those dark, hidden places. And they had to prove that they were better than those who inhabited those places.

Alex knew that he shouldn't have gotten so mad at Dash. It was just that…bested by a mere unadulterated, average-Joe human? Necromancers were the Lords of the Dead, and lords did not like to be bested by commoners. But he _had_ gotten mad, he _had_ drawn undue attention to himself, and he _had_ aroused Danny Fenton/Phantom's suspicion--and this just his second day at Casper High! He was the worst spy ever. Mother was not going to like this.

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"Man, this homework Mr. Lancer gave us is killing me," Tuck complained.

Alex sat down. "That homework Mr. Lancer gave us sure was easy, wasn't it?"

Tuck glared at him. "I hate you."

Alex laughed. "You did that problem wrong."

"Say, you wanna hang out by the Nasty Burger later?" Tuck asked.

"If I can. I'll have to ask my mother if I'm still grounded," Alex said. He hadn't actually been grounded, but he knew he was going to be in trouble tonight.

"Tough break," Danny said. "What for?"

"Oh, just some stupid thing. You know parents," Alex said, shrugging. _Except for me, "grounding" will probably mean time in the dungeon._ It was just lucky that the house they were living in was too small for them to build a properly-equipped dungeon. Necromancers; Alex had known less vicious werewolves. "So, any good movies out?"

"ZombieKiller VII comes out this week," Tuck said.

"Pfft. That movie is so fake," Alex said. "Could those zombies be any more retarded? All they do is walk around and go 'ugh, ugh, ugh.' Nothing like real--ly good zombie movies." He had almost said _real life_.

They were staring at him. "You've seen ZombieKiller VII?" Tuck asked.

"Um, no, but the prequels were totally lame," Alex saved.

"I thought those zombies were pretty scary," Tuck said.

_You've obviously never seen a real zombie,_ Alex thought. "Please. Monster movies suck. The graphics stink, the plots stink, and the acting is so horrid that I find myself rooting for the monsters pretty quickly." Of course, it helped that he _was_ one of the monsters.

Sam nodded, "I know what you mean…" They talked about movies that sucked until the bell rang. In spite of his best intentions, Alex was beginning to like these people. He had to suppress those feelings, though. After all, they were the enemy, weren't they? Well, Danny was, at least. He was in enough trouble as it was; the last thing he needed was to become soft towards those he was spying--he collided with someone, losing his train of thought.

"Oh, sorry, man," Alex said. "Totally my bad." He bent over to start picking up his textbooks and--

"Here, let me help," Danny said. He reached for a book bound in black leather.

"No, don't--" it was too late; Danny touched it, and was shocked by the ghost-guard. He yipped. "I tried to warn you," Alex said. "It's a gag," he lied, "like those lighters you get at the joke shop, the ones that shock you when you try to use them, you know? Except in book form." He gathered his stuff and walked away. Somehow, he didn't think they believed him.

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Sam knew that Alex was lying. Those kinds of gags needed a mechanism, because if they ran continuously they would drain their batteries and also shock everybody that touched them. If Danny had _opened_ the book and gotten shocked, that would have been believable, but all he did was touch it. That wouldn't have made a very good gag: the person giving it would get shocked before the victim.

There were twelve characters in tiny gold print on the cover of the book, which Sam committed to memory and then to paper at the first opportunity. The school had one of those dictionaries that briefly examined the archaic forms of letters. She went to the library and looked at it during study hall.

There were twelve characters in the word. She went in alphabetical order through the dictionary, checking to see if any of the characters matched with the ones in the book. None of them were As. None were Bs. The two X-shaped ones that were third from the front and third from the back turned out to be Ancient Greek Cs. No Ds. The one in front of the first C, which looked like a backwards three, was an E, which sort of made sense, and the next letter to turn up, I, also looked kind of like it should. The I was in front of the other C. Sam looked at what she had so far?ec?ic?. No clues yet. The letter in front of the I, which looked like a lowercase U with a bloody nose, was an M, and then there were three Ns (which looked like Vs), and for some reason even the first one was lowercase. What she had now was: nec?n?mic?n. An idea occurred to her. The three characters that looked like Os turned out, indeed, to be Os, and then she skipped ahead to R. The one which looked like a P was an R. The word was _necronomicon_.

Sam shivered. The Necronomicon? The Book of the Dead? The book which, if the movies were anywhere close to correct, allowed people to raise zombies, summon ghosts, and do all sorts of other freaky things? What the hell was Alex Gentry doing with this damn thing, carrying it around school in his backpack like it was a textbook? She had to tell Danny and Tuck.

She found Tuck first, and told him what she had found. His eyes widened. "That book didn't look like it was bound in human flesh," he said.

"That's kind of doubtful," Sam said. "Still, we ought to tell Danny."

They found him in the hall. "Hey, guys. Can this wait? I forgot my history book."

"That book Alex had, the one that shocked you when you touched it? It was the Necronomicon," Sam said.

"You mean like in _Evil Dead?_" Danny asked.

"Possibly," Sam said.

"What the hell would he be doing with that?" Danny said. "Not that there isn't something strange about him."

"I don't know, but it seems we might want to find out more about him," Sam said.

"I'll handle that," Tuck said.

"We'll keep our eyes and ears open," Danny said. They got to his locker. "There it is again; that creepy, ghost-like sensation." He looked both ways to make sure the coast was clear, and went ghost. Then he went intangible and went into the locker. He came out holding his history book.

"You know, you could have just opened the locker, you don't have to show off," Tuck said.

"No, it's in here," Danny said. "When I went intangible, there was some sort of resistance when I touched it."

"But when you go intangible, doesn't that make you…well, intangible?" Sam pointed out. "To everything?"

"That's what I thought," Danny said. He flipped through the pages, like he expected the host to pop out and go "Boo." "What the?"

"What is it?" Sam asked.

Danny ran his fingernail over the edge of the cover, just a few millimeters from where the endpaper ended. "Glue?" He worried the corner of the endpaper, and then tore it from the cover.

"Danny, no! That's school property; don't rip the cover off. You'll have to pay for it," Tuck said.

"What is _that_?" Danny asked. Sam looked. It was sort of a…

"It looks like a stop sign with spokes," Tuck said.

"Actually, it kind of looks like a pentagram, but with eight sides instead of five," Sam said. "Is there such a thing as an octogram?"

"I don't think so," Danny said.

"In that case, I coin the term," Sam said. "That's an octogram."

"Alright," Danny said. "What is it doing in my book, and why is it radiating ghost power?"

"Well, pentagrams are supposed to be used for spells, right?" Sam said. "Maybe you should borrow my history book for a while, Danny."

"I think that that's a good idea," Danny said, somewhat disconcerted.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"_There it is again; that creepy, ghost-like sensation," Danny said._ Alex heard this in his mind. Pretending to be reading, he closed his eyes and astroprojected himself so that he could see what was happening first hand. Danny went intangible and floated around the locker, searching…

_Surely, he won't be able to find--_ Danny came up against his history textbook, and stopped. _Why did I make it intangibility-resistant?_ The answer was that it was second nature for him, when dealing with ghosts. After all, what was the point of making a charm if the ghost could just go intangible and escape? He watched, mortified, as the three discovered his octogram. He almost cried; it wasn't fair. Mother was going to kill him. Not literally, but it was going to be bad enough that saying _not literally_ wasn't redundant.

"_Well, pentagrams are supposed to be used for spells, right?" Sam said. "Maybe you should borrow my history book for a while, Danny."_

"_I think that that's a good idea," Danny said._

"Hey, why do you hang out with those losers?" Dash asked, breaking Alex of his trance.

"Wha--huh?"

Dash smiled. "Asleep? I can totally relate; this class is boring. I said, 'Why do you hang out with those losers?'"

Alex shrugged. "I guess I got off to a bad start." He wasn't in the same class as Danny, Sam, or Tucker this hour.

"Seriously, you are the best damn football player I have ever seen," Dash said, "especially for a little guy."

_Or ever will,_ Alex added silently. "I'm not _that_ good," he said modestly. He should have pretended to be worse than he was. It wasn't wise to attract too much attention to himself, as a necromancer. "I just caught you off-guard, is all."

"Yeah, well, I'm throwing a party next week," Dash said. "Thinking you might like to come…we could talk about signing you up for the team."

Alex looked at him, thoughtful. He had dealt with the politics of necromancers, vampires, and werewolves long enough to have a fair idea of how thing worked in high school. He was being offered a spot in Dash's circle. Dash was a powerful person in this court; he'd be a good ally to have, if Alex was to claw his way to the top of this food chain. Not that he could care less. As much like the politics he was used to as it was, it was also a lot less lethal. Still…

"I'll see if I can't be there, but I may still be grounded," Alex said.

"Grounded? What did you do?" Dash asked.

"I was caught," Alex said. Ironically closer to the truth then what he told his "friends."

Dash smiled. "Amen, buddy."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Alex kneeled on the floor, sitting on his ankles, face turned down. Strands of hair got in his face, but he dared not lift a hand to fix it. His mother paced in front of him.

"Why, exactly, did you feel the need to confront the hellion on your first day of school?" Ann demanded.

"I was…ashamed of myself. When I faced Plasmius, and he turned into Vlad Masters…I panicked. I fled."

"And you thought to prove your bravado by facing another of the creatures," Ann said.

"With all due respect, Mother, we went over this yesterday," Alex said.

Ann snorted. "You say that as if it meant something. We go over what I want, when we want. And why did you feel it necessary to put a charm in the hellion's textbook?" she asked.

"So I could spy on him," Alex said.

"And when did I tell you to do that?" Ann demanded.

"You said to keep tabs on him," Alex said.

"I meant stay close to him, be on the scene when he fights ghosts, that sort of thing," Ann said.

Oh. "I misunderstood. I apologize." He started to bow deeper.

Ann cuffed him on the back of his head. "Did I tell you to move?"

"No, Mother."

"Then don't."

"Yes, Mother."

"Tonight, at midnight, I want you to hex the Amity Park Graveyard. I want to be able to raise any corpse in there as a zombie at a moment's hesitation, understand?" Ann ordered.

"Yes, Mother." Preparing a corpse in advanced for a zombie-raising was handy if you planned on getting in trouble later, the kind of trouble where you needed muscle fast and didn't have the time to go through the complex rituals involved with raising the dead. Preparing an entire graveyard would have been a tough call for even the most skilled of necromancers, and would likely be impossible for Alex. Never mind that tomorrow was a school day; going to school beat was part of the punishment. If he was lucky, he'd pass out; that way, at least, he'd get a little sleep.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"What did you find out about Alex?" Danny asked.

"First, his family moves about a lot. At first, I thought that this was because of trouble he might have been causing, but his record is spotless. Then, remembering just why it was that I was looking into his history, I got smart and started looking at the paranormal sights. Virtually every town they have ever lived in or visited has had some sort of paranormal…thing. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, you name it," Tuck said.

"I looked into hospital records next," he continued. "His family has a long history of suspicious-seeming injuries. I mean, going back generations. Dog bites that had to come from an animal the size of a small pony and mysterious losses of blood, among other things. I also noticed that their dead are all shipped to a place called Gentry Hills in England. I assume that that's some sort of cemetery, but I can find nothing on them aside from a mailing address. And of course I notice that 'Gentry' is also Alex's last name."

Tuck took a breath, "This got me looking at the family as a whole. As in family trees. Guess what? He's a pedigree."

"He doesn't look like a dog," Danny said.

"No, I mean, his family has a history of marrying distant cousins. Not inbred, but like you would expect of some sort of nobility, or clan. Also, when they marry, they tend to take the woman's name," Tuck said.

"What's wrong with that?" Sam asked.

"Nothing, but think about it: this is a trend going back centuries, as far back as I can trace the family lines. And it's the rule with them, not the exception. Doesn't that seem weird?" Tuck asked. "If one of them would be arrested, they would disappear from jail and never be heard from again. A lot of them would be found drowned in a river somewhere, covered with ritualistic-seeming cuts. I mean, it's weird. Also, they have had dealings with the Circus Gothica."

Danny winced; having his mind controlled by Circus Gothica's creepy ringleader Freakshow was not one of his more pleasant memories. "Going how far back?"

"Generations, right to it's birth," Tuck said. "The person who founded it bought a rod, the description of which is eerily similar to that of the one which was used to control Danny and the other ghosts, from the Gentry family for an exorbitant amount of money. Alex specifically hasn't been anywhere near Freakshow or anyone associated with Freakshow, though.

"Back to Alex, he visits a site called ' rather frequently, which I have tried to access, but the you need a password or something, and the security is tight."

" 'Nexponomixon?'" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Why? Does it mean anything?" Tucker asked.

"Well, on Alex's book, the word 'necronomicon,' was written in ancient Greek letters. The Cs looked liked Xs and the R looked like a P. But other stuff looked like stuff it wasn't, too…" Sam said. She shook her head. "Go on."

"Also, the guys in white have a file on him," Tuck said.

"What's in the file?" Danny asked.

"Don't know," Tuck said. "Still trying to hack it. But I know that it's there, and that alone says something."

"What about the necronomicon?" Danny asked.

"I tried to find a reliable source on what, exactly, the necronomicon is, but it was impossible," Tuck said.

"You couldn't find anything about the necronomicon on the internet?" Danny asked, unbelieving.

Tuck shook his head. "Just the opposite: too much crap. And that's what it was: crap. Movie fan sites, internet cults, just plain inane stuff. I did learn that 'necronomicon' is literally Latin for 'book of the dead,' so for all I know there is no original mythos. A movie producer could have sat down one day and said, 'hmm, I want to make a movie where an evil spell book has the power to raise the dead, but what can I call it? How abut the Book of the Dead, but in Latin… "Necronomicon?" That's perfectly hideous-sounding!' Well, the stuff on the internet claims that there are legends about the Necronomicon going back thousands of years, but I'm beginning to hate the internet."

Tuck did a double take, "Did I just say that? Oh, God, what have I become!"

"Uh, sounds real frustrating," Sam said.

"So, any theories?" Danny asked.

"A crazy one," Tuck said.

"It's better than nothing," Danny said.

"Well, that rod that Freakshow used to control you? It had to come from somewhere. Someone had to make it. What if that someone was the Gentry family? What if they have some sort of…of _power_, a psychic energy that can be imbued into an object and used to control ghosts? What if all of these strange injuries came from dealing with ghosts? What if the whole family is a bunch of…"

"What?" Danny asked.

Tuck shook his head.

"Just say it," Sam said.

"It's too crazy," Tuck said.

"What, crazier than what we deal with every day?" Sam asked. " 'What if the whole family is a bunch of _necromancers_?' There, I said it."

"Wait…like in Dungeons and Dragons?" Danny asked. "The bad guys dressed in black who are always trying to take over the world with armies of skeletons and zombies and vampires and ghouls and gh--" he stopped.

"And ghosts," Tuck said.

"Why would a necromancer be here?" Danny asked.

"With all the ghost activity that has been going on the last few months, why wouldn't one be here?" Sam said. "But I think he's here for you. I mean, putting the hex in your book and all."

"Of course. The freaks _always_ come after me," Danny said.

"He seems nice for a freak, though. He even helped me with my homework," Tuck said.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Alex was _tired_. He had been in the graveyard from midnight until dawn zombifying the corpses of Amity Park's dearly departed, and then he had to go home, shower, change brush his teeth, and go to school. _Shit, I forgot deodorant._ Gee, this day was going to be just _swell_.

He also did horrid in gym. The other kids could keep up with him half of the time, and he even fumbled the ball once! He then pretty much slept through his next hour class, and after that he went to lunch.

"Whoa, you don't look too well," Danny said.

"Long night," Alex murmured.

"Long night doing _what_?" Sam asked.

Alex looked at her. "Do I really look _that_ bad?"

"You look like one of the undead," Tuck said. He winced as someone kicked him under the table.

"Seriously, what have you been doing?" Danny asked.

Alex looked at him, really looked at him. "You really are concerned, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Danny said.

Could it be that they were completely wrong about Danny Fenton/Phantom? Could he be…_dare I say it_…one of the good guys? Alex shook his head to clear it, and nearly fell out of his seat doing so.

Danny caught him before he hit the ground. "You alright?"

Alex nodded. "Thanks, man. You're alright, you know that?"

"What have you been doing?" he asked again.

Alex smiled weakly, "Third time's the charm, eh? Well…I don't want to talk about it." He leaned his head against the table. "You know, I have had cohorts, even lackeys, but I think you are the first _friends_ I have ever had. I like you people; I really like you." Alex knew it to be true when he said it. He just didn't think that it was a good thing. After all, what would he do if he got orders to kill Danny Phantom?

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"Yo, Alex," Andy said. "You _are_ alive, right? Mom didn't kill you, then raise your corpse to throw suspicion off of herself, right?"

Alex glared at his older brother. "What do you think?"

"Seriously, though, you look like shit," Andy said.

Alex stood straight and tried not to show weakness. Even though he loved his brother, they were still both necromancers, and one necromancer did not show weakness to another. The Lords of the Dead were a highly competitive people. "I'm going to my room. Unless, of course, Mother has orders for me?"

"No, the 'rents are out on the town with their new friends, the Fentons," Andy said. The tone of his voice said how likely he thought it was that they genuinely liked Jack and Maddie Fenton, as opposed to them just befriending them in order to dig up more information on their son and Vlad Masters.

_Thank the gods!_ Alex nodded and went to his room. He put on headphones and put a CD in the player. He lounged on the bed, listening to music, like any normal kid would. Of course, the CD he was listening to was one of the rare surviving copies of the only record put out by Ember (it's mind-controlling effects were negated by his necromantic power). The necromancer community had destroyed most of them. They didn't want a ghost taking over humanity; they were humans, after all.

It was too bad she was a ghost bent on ruling humanity, because Alex actually liked Ember's music. She was cute, too. For a ghost, that is…

Alex's eyelids grew heavy, and he fell asleep, after being awake for thirty-four hours.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Danny tossed Sam the Fenton Thermos. "Remind me to put _that_ away," he said, panting.

"Damn," Tuck said. He pulled a hand-held tape recorder out of his pocket. "This stupid thing was recording. I'd better rewind the tape and record over that fight with some white noise or something."

"That seems incredibly low-tech for you," Sam said.

"It's for this stupid assignment in some class or other," Tuck said. "You don't have it."

"Uh-uh. Maybe you should refresh your memory as to what you're supposed to be doing with that thing," Sam said. It was a good bet that if he forgot what _class_ he was doing the assignment for that he also forgot what exactly he was doing.

"Ah, man, that stupid ghost--" Danny started.

"Great. Now I have to stop the tape again," Tuck said.

Sorry," Danny said. "Anyway, as I was saying, I'm beat. Not as beat as Alex was today, but beat."

"What the hell did he do to end up in that condition?" Sam asked.

Danny shrugged. "Necromancer stuff, maybe."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"Gentry, you've been called to the office," the gym teacher said.

"Right," Alex jogged down the hallways. He went into the office. "I was told I had a phone call?"

The secretary nodded, and handed him a phone. "Hello?" Alex asked.

"This is your mother," Ann said.

Alex shivered. She wouldn't have called unless it was really important. "What is it?"

"We just got a message from Mother," Ann said. "Vlad Plasmius has been consorting with the Fright Knight."

Alex's stomach dropped. He hadn't realized how much he had hoped that he could be friends with Danny. He might have even been able to swallow his pride and stomach being in the same room as Vlad Masters/Plasmius, eventually. He had honestly started to believe that Danny Fenton/Phantom was one of the good guys. But if they were in league with the Fright Night, they were also in league with his master, and Pariah Dark was the sworn enemy of all necromancers. "Confirmed, or rumor?"

"Rumor, but the queen bitch doesn't want to take any chances," Ann said. Alex's mother and grandmother were almost exactly alike, so of course they hated each other. Still, Ann followed her mother's orders, just like Alex followed his mother's orders. Necromancers were a fiercely matriarchal people.

"Have any others of their kind been found?" Alex asked.

"No. They think that Vlad must have warned them," Ann said.

"Orders?" Alex asked.

Ann sighed. "You are to capture the local hellion," she said. "Use whatever means are at your disposal. And Alex…be careful, okay?"

Was she showing maternal feeling? She must not like his odds. "Yes, Mother," Alex said. He thanked the secretary and went back down to the locker rooms. He needed to get Danny away from the others, but how? Then it hit him that he had a ghost sense. Well, now it would prove to be his downfall. Alex ripped a hole in the fabric of space-time to the Ghost Zone, and summoned the most powerful ghost that his family had to call on.

"_Dracolich, Dracolich, Dracolich/Thrice summoned, once received,_" it was a short incantation, but they didn't necessarily have to be long. A ghost shaped like a Japanese dragon poured out of the tear and into the locker room. Danny was sure to sense this. Sure to fall into Alex's trap.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Danny could see his breath. A ghost. Something near, something big. "I've got to go to the bathroom," he ran into the locker room. He paused when he saw Alex, flanked by a giant snake-like ghost.

Alex smiled evilly. "What's the matter, Daniel Fenton? Or should I say, Daniel _Masters_? Don't look so surprised. There are only two of you half-ghost freaks that we have been able to track down in all of America, and you expect me to believe that the fact that the other one just so happens to be in love with your mom is a coincidence? Sorry, don't think so."

"Ew, gross!" Danny said. "Don't even joke about that."

"So there's more of you out there, then? I'd love to hear all about it--and I _will_ hear all about it. We have ways of making you talk," Alex said.

"No, I--"

"If you resist, this is going to get ugly," Alex said. "Now, I would rather not fight here, where innocent bystanders could get hurt, but don't think for an instant that I'm squeamish. I _will_ use whatever force necessary to subdue you."

"Well, then, let's have this fight in the parking lot," Danny said. He went ghost and fled. He looked behind him and saw that Alex and the ghost were giving chase. _What the…how is he going intangible?_ He remembered that he could turn Sam and Tucker intangible with him. Surely other ghosts could do the same.

Alex jumped off of the snake, which Danny now saw had legs and other non-snakelike features, and said, "Dracolich, subdue him."

Danny shot three plasma bolts at Dracolich and one at Alex. All were dodged nimbly. He flew upwards, charging a very large plasma blast. Dracolich pursued, and then Danny hit him with everything he had. Danny thought the ghost had gone down, but he was only paying attention to the head; Dracolich slapped him with his tail. Danny crashed into the parking lot at speeds high enough to crack the blacktop. He sat up and tried to clear his head. Danny looked for Dracolich, and found that he had knocked the beast out, after all; the ghost had just gotten a lucky hit in.

Alex ran at him. Danny shot a plasma bolt at him, he dodged. When he came within range, Danny tried to punch him, but Alex blocked. Jeez, no wonder this kid was so good in gym.

"Lightning!" Alex intoned. A bolt of lightning shot from Alex's hand, hitting Danny at point blank range. Everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

"Where is Danny?" Sam asked. "He's been missing since gym."

I don't know. Damn it, I left this thing recording _again!_" Tuck rewound the tape recorder, then played to see where he was.

"What's the matter, Daniel Fenton? Or should I say, Daniel _Masters_?" the voice on the tape recorder said.

"That sounded like Alex," Sam said.

"It must have been recording while we were at gym," Tuck said. "I would have remembered hearing something like that."

"Don't look so surprised," Alex continued on the tape. "There are only two of you half-ghost freaks that we have been able to track down in all of America, and you expect me to believe that the fact that the other one just so happens to be in love with your mom is a coincidence? Sorry, don't think so."

The next voice was Danny's: "Ew, gross! Don't even joke about that."

Alex: "So there's more of you out there, then? I'd love to hear all about it--and I _will_ hear all about it. We have ways of making you talk."

Danny: "No, I--"

Alex: "If you resist, this is going to get ugly. Now, I would rather not fight here, where innocent bystanders could get hurt, but don't think for an instant that I'm squeamish. I _will_ use whatever force necessary to subdue you."

Danny: "Well, then, let's have this fight in the parking lot."

"The parking lot!" Sam and Tuck said together. They ran for it, their lunches forgotten. In a couple of places the blacktop was melted (probably from Danny's plasma blast), in one place cratered, and in another cracked.

Tuck whistled. "What crashed here? It's huge." He was looking at the crater.

"I don't think we want to know. Necromancers are supposed to have access to all sorts of undead monsters," Sam said. "We've got to save Danny. To Alex's house!"

"Wait. Do we even know where he lives?" Tuck asked.

Now that he mentioned it, they didn't…Sam was hit with an idea. "You know that place that was for sale, the one by the cemetery?"

Tuck slapped himself on the forehead. "Of course. Where better for a family of necromancers to live than right next door to a graveyard?"

"I'd rather not think about it. My grandfather's buried there," Sam said. "Let's go."

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Danny came too gradually. The first thing he noticed was that he wasn't laying down. He was hanging from his wrists. Against a wall. Shackles?

"This is him?" a female voice asked.

"Yes, Mother," Alex's voice said. "Danny Fenton/Phantom. He took out Dracolich."

"Really? She's quite powerful."

Danny was suddenly bolt awake. "What did you do to me?" he demanded.

"Knocked you out and dragged you here," Alex said. "Why? What did you think I did to you?"

"Enough with the witty banter," Ann said. "Will you stay while I interrogate our…guest?"

Alex's face blanked. "I'd rather not get my clothes dirty. Besides, I'd just get in your way, Mother. Shall I see if Father needs anything?"

Ann nodded, and Alex left. "He tries to hide it, but he's a sensitive lad. Unfortunately for you, he _doesn't_ get that annoying trait from me. Now, how many of your kind are there?"

"Just me and Plasmius," Danny said. There was no point in lying, he saw.

"Of course it is," Ann said. And then she backhanded him. "Let me rephrase that: how many of you sins against nature continue to breathe and dare call yourselves human?"

"Look, lady, I swear, it's just me and Plasmius. I don't know what your problem is, but--"

"My problem is with you and Vlad working with the Fright Knight," Ann said. "I thought you half-ghost freaks were extinct. I thought we had killed the last of you monsters centuries ago. One Christián Knight/Darkside was the official end of your putrid race, killed by Sean Stevenson (who is an ancestor of mine, incidentally), and yet here you are, alive and kicking…we'll see how long that lasts."

"A lab accident turned me into this," Danny protested. "A similar accident turned Vlad Masters into Plasmius twenty years ago."

"A likely story," Ann said. "Or rather, _not_ a likely story. What do you expect? For me to believe that you're some kind of superhero? Do you fly around, saving damsels in distress, Mr. Phantom?" she mocked. "Save it."

"Actually, yeah, something like that," Danny said. "Just ask around town, why don't you?"

"I have. It could be theorized that you fight ghosts to protect people, but it could also be believed that you have claimed Amity Park as your territory and do not want other ghosts around," Ann said. "The latter seems more likely, as you are a hellion, the ancient enemy of my people and servant of Pariah Dark."

"I am not in league with Pariah Dark, I am not in league with the Fright Knight, and I am sure as _hell_ not in league with Vlad Masters!" Danny said, almost shouting. This was getting annoying. "If you won't listen, then it's time for me to go." He went ghost. And was shocked with about a million volts of electricity. Without his willing it, he reverted to his human form, and fell to the ground, gasping.

"I was hoping you'd try something stupid like that. Oh, look, you seem to have escaped your chains. Must have phased through when you were ghost," Ann said. "Gertrude! Chain him up again."

As Danny was on all fours gasping, the first thing he saw of Gertrude was her feet, but that alone was enough to make his blood turn to ice. He knew, before he even looked up to confirm it, that Gertrude was a zombie.

"Don't worry. Gertrude is very gentile. She was Alex's nanny, as a matter of fact," Ann said.

"Which would explain a little something about your family," Danny said as he was lifted from the ground and re-shackled. He cringed at the corpse's touch.

"You don't seem to like Gertrude very much. That's too bad, because she probably likes you. Our Gertrude is a friendly girl." Ann smiled, "Say, that gives me an idea. I suggest that you start telling me the truth at this point, boy, no more fun and games."

"I _am_ telling you the truth," Danny said. "I am not in league with Vlad. I don't know what the evil bastard is doing, but I doubt he would be working with Pariah Dark. The Ghost Kind didn't seem like he'd make a good lackey."

"Such hateful words you have for your own father," Ann said.

"He is not my father. He is my arch enemy. He has tried to kill my father and steal my mother on--God, I've lost track of how many times, come to think of it. A lot of weird stuff has happened to me since the accident that gave me my powers," Danny said.

"So you want to play with me, do you?" Ann asked rhetorically. "Well, that's fine. I can play back. Gertrude? If you would, dear, kiss our guest," she said. "On the lips."

Danny squeezed his lips shut tight as he possibly could as the zombie kissed him.

"Next time, I'll tell her to stick her tongue in," Ann said. "You don't want to know what happens after that."

"This is beyond sick and wrong!" Danny said.

"I know. Can you believe that I only just thought of this just now, on the spot?" Ann said. "Now how many of you are there, and where are you hiding?"

"You can't keep me here like this!" Danny said. "My friends--"

An older boy who looked a lot like Alex entered, toting Sam and Tuck. "We caught these two trying to break in," he said.

"Good work, Andy," Ann said.

"What are you two _doing_ here?" Danny demanded.

"We, ah, came to save you," Sam said.

"What was that you were saying, hellion?" Ann asked patronizingly.

"Why do you keep calling me that? Anyway, my family--"

Alex and a girl and a ghost Danny hadn't met before flanked Jasmine as she entered, hands held above her head.

"We needed a ride," Tuck explained.

"Excellent work, Alex, Anita, Beau," Ann said.

"Did _everyone_ I care about fall into these people's trap?" Danny asked of no one. "My parents? Veronica?"

"Put those people somewhere until I decide what to do with them," Ann said.

"Mother?" Alex asked.

Ann turned on her son. "Is there a problem, Alex? These people have been fraternizing with the enemy."

"I don't think they knew he was a bad guy. I mean, he had _me_ half-believing he was good, until we learned that he was dealing with the Fright Knight."

"He is _not_ dealing with the Fright Knight!" Sam protested.

"Yeah!" Jas said. "Um, which one's the Fright Knight again?"

"When Amity Park was sucked into the Ghost Zone? Fright Knight," Tuck said.

"I thought that that was Pariah Dark," Jas said.

"Pariah Dark is awake?" Ann demanded of the redhead.

"Well, he _was_," Jas said.

"I defeated him," Danny said. "Of course, I had to get the help of my worst enemies…including Vlad…to do it. Oh, and this suit my Dad invented that multiplied my strength a hundredfold but almost killed me."

Ann ignored him. "Have her tortured, too. I think there's a male zombie around here…"

"No!" Danny phased through his chains and aimed a blast at Ann. A shield popped up, and absorbed the blast. It extended from Alex's hand.

"You and me," Alex said. "Mono e mono. Hellion versus necromancer. Winner take all."

"No, Alex, you're injured," Andy protested.

"I forbid it," the little girl added.

"You're not in a position to forbid anything, not yet, little sister," Alex said.

"Well, _I_ forbid it, then." A man walked into the room.

"Sorry, Father. I am within my rights here. I saw him first. I marked him first. I bloodied him first. I called him first. That's four separate and independently valid claims to him that I have," Alex said.

"Damn it, son, he's not just a ghost, he's a hellion," Aaron scolded his son.

"I know that, Father," Alex said. "Better than any of us, I know what he is. What do you say, Phantom? You and me."

"Beats taking you all on at once," Danny said, going ghost. "If I win, you have to let my friends and sister go."

"Done, provided they don't go to the cops with this," Alex said.

"Who would believe them?" Danny asked.

"In this town?" Alex pointed out. "If I win, you allow me into your mind so that I can make you my slave."

"What?" Sam demanded.

"It's either that or torture and eventual death," Alex said.

"If it's the only way I'm going to get a fair fight, than I accept," Danny said.

"You are usurping my authority, boy," Ann said.

"Shut up, Mother," Alex said. The fact that he would say something like that to the woman who had held this family in a military-style grip since before he was born said more than the actual content of the words.

Ann looked at her second born. "Your personal honor had better be this important, boy."

Alex, knowing that she was letting him have his way, nodded.

"Wait," Anita said. "This fight shouldn't happen here. We need someplace with more…elbowroom." She tore a hole in the fabric of space-time and sucked them all into the Ghost Zone. "Much better," she said approvingly. "I have made you an arena. The bounds are invisible, but you won't be able to cross them, either of you. Feel free to use whatever dirty tricks you want, but there will be no interference from outside…and no comments from the peanut gallery, I trust?" she glared at Sam, Tuck, and Jas, who stared at Danny and Alex, ignoring her.

"Impressive, little sis," Alex said approvingly.

"Keep your head in the game!" Ann ordered.

"So, do we go at the count of three," asked Danny, "or--"

Alex hit him, knocking him backwards. Danny blasted Alex, but he dodged. Danny flew at Alex, and he dodged again. _Wait: I'm flying at 112 mph, and he can _dodge_ me?_ Obviously, there was more to his powers than Danny had thought.

Danny made another run at Alex, who dodged, and then punched him in the kidney. Danny hit the ground, bounced off the ground, and hit the ground again five feet away. He got up again.

"Okay, this is going to take something fancier than that," Danny said to himself. He split into two and then attacked from both sides.

"Eenie, meenie…there!" Alex shot the real Danny with a lightning bolt.

Danny fell to the ground, and then jumped just in time to avoid being pounded to the ground and ending up even more winded than he was.

Danny used his ghost wail. Alex yawned. "I'm sorry, was that supposed to do something?" he asked. He shocked Danny again, knocking him to the ground.

"Okay, no ghost wail, no ghost clones, what does that leave?" Danny asked of himself, shaking his head to clear it.

"Hey, up here, hellion!" Alex said.

Danny got to his feet and faced the necromancer. "This is going to hurt you more--" before he could finish the witty banter, he was hit in the head from behind. He was knocked to the ground than kicked over onto his back so that he could face his attacker. It was Alex. "Since when can you do _that?_"

"Since none of your business," Alex's clone said, and disappeared. Ectoplasm appeared in Alex's hand, and shaped itself alarmingly like a sword. "Nothing will be your business ever again."

He swung his sword. Suddenly, Alex wasn't there. Danny looked, and saw him looking as confused as he was, his sword sticking into the dirt.

"What the--"

"I stopped you from making a grievous mistake," a voice said.

Danny and Alex looked at the source of the voice. "Clockwork!" they said in unison. Then, looking at each other, "You know Clockwork?"

"Well, I know _of_ him," Alex said. "You?"

"Met him once or twice," Danny said. "Thanks for saving my bacon, Clockwork. What's the occasion?"

"For once, I'm here to stop someone _other_ than you from doing something stupid," Clockwork said.

Danny opened his mouth to protest, but realized that pretty much every time Clockwork showed up, Danny did something stupid and he helped fix it.

"You mean killing him, don't you?" Alex guessed. Of course: Clockwork had stopped time, moved Danny out of the way, and started it again.

"You think?" Clockwork asked sarcastically.

"But he's a hellion, a servant of Pariah Dark," Alex said.

Clockwork opened a portal to the past, and showed them Danny's battle with the ghost king and the aftermath of it.

"Take down this wall, Anita," Ann ordered. She approached Clockwork. "He's still a hellion." Clockwork closed that portal and opened another, showing how Danny became half-ghost. "But--" he closed that portal and opened another one, showing how Vlad Masters became half ghost. "Even if they are freaks of science instead of freaks of nature, they're still--"

"This is getting tiresome." Clockwork said. He opened another portal.

"Where does this one lead, a Jack the Ripper movie?" Danny asked. A man wearing period clothing was walking down a dark street, when he was confronted by a pale woman.

"End of the line, Christián," she said. She grinned showing fangs.

"Where ist thine master, beauty?" Christián asked. "Doth he not care to face me like a man."

"I am right behind thee, Christián," another voice said. A man walked into view.

Christián turned around. "Stevenson. Sending a fledgling vampire after me? Hast thou forgotten that I am a hellion? Allowst me to remind thee why they call me Christián Darkside. I'm going ghost!" Christián turned into a ghost with pitch black skin, red slit eyes, flaming blue hair, and no visible mouth.

"Um, I don't think this is helping me," Danny said.

"No, it is," Alex said, not taking his eyes from the portal. "Do you feel it, Mother? This one is different from Danny and Vlad. Danny and Vlad are something else, something new." His voice cracked, and he sounded hopeful. "This means we don't have to kill them."

"I'll have to report back to Mother before that is decided," Ann said. "Still, your friends are free to go for now."

"Say, Clockwork, I don't suppose you could take us back in time an hour or so, so that we don't get in trouble for ditching school?" Danny asked.

"Clockwork's powers are not a toy," Alex scolded. "We're just going to have to take whatever punishment we get. I'll say that I talked you into ditching; it seems only fair."

Danny looked at him. "Only fair? You tried to kill me!"

"Like Clockwork said, it would have been a grievous mistake," Alex said.

"Hey, uh, could we get _out_ of the Ghost Zone?" Tuck asked. "It's kind of hard to go to school when you're in an alternate dimension."

Anita rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said exasperatedly. She waved her arms and they were all sucked into the human world. "You happy now, crybaby?"

" 'A grievous mistake!' How about when your mother was letting a zombie have her way with me and was going to let another have his way with Jas? Was that another 'grievous mistake?'"

"No, that's what we call a lie, the second part, at least. We have no other zombies aside from Gertrude," Alex said. "Honestly, can you imagine the hassle we would go through, shipping dead bodies cross country?" Best not to mention the fact that he spent a night preparing Amity Park's dead for zombification. He doubted that his mother would have raised a corpse in broad daylight, anyway. "As for the first part…" he shrugged. "We thought you were working with the Fright Knight to revive the Ghost King and enslave humanity. Sue us; what would you have done?"

"Speaking of which, how the hell did you end up with _that_ impression?" Danny asked.

"In case you hadn't of noticed, you do have traits in common with the most loyal of minions Pariah Dark ever had. Right down to your names."

"Say what?" Danny demanded.

"Christián Knight is Christián Darkside. Vlad Masters is Vlad Plasmius. Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom. Coincidence, or pattern? Turns out, coincidence, but it didn't seem likely," Alex said. "Look, I'm sorry I tried to kill you. I thought you were evil. Truce?"

"Yeah, fine," Danny said grudgingly.

"Friends?" Alex asked.

Danny stared at Alex. "We'll see," he said.

"So, Danny, would you have really let me enslave you to save your friends and sister?" Alex asked.

"If it was the only way…yeah, I think I would have." Danny said.

Alex looked at him, horrified. "What are you _thinking_, telling me something like that?" Alex demanded. "You don't tell a potential enemy something like that! Gods, what are you thinking? I could use that against you!"

"I thought you wanted to be friends," Danny said.

"I do. But I follow orders. If Grandmother tells me that I have to kill you, then I will try to kill you. You can't let me see your weaknesses, you can't let me see what hurts you. If an enemy holds the one you hold most dear hostage, you have to act like they don't mean anything to you. Do you understand?" Alex said frantically.

"Aren't you breaking your own advice by telling me this?" Danny asked.

Alex sighed. "The thing is…you're one of the good guys, Danny. I know that now. I'm a soldier, so when I'm ordered to fight, I fight. If the orders come down to fight you now, knowing that you're a good guy, I will do as I have been ordered…which would make you _the_ good guy in that fight. I like when the good guys win, Danny. It's a feel-good feeling all around."

"Wow, and I thought my life as a half-ghost was complicated," Danny said.

"That's nothing. I also had to master vampire and werewolf politicking. Trust me when I say that heads can roll in those fields--literally," Alex said. "That's the thing about us creatures of the night, though. You can't show weakness. Not to your enemies, not even to your friends. Your friends can quickly become your enemies, after all. You toady up to those with more influence than you do, you disdain those with less, and you build up your own power base--actually, it's a lot like high school, but deadlier."

"Was that a joke?" Jas asked.

"A bad one," Alex admitted.

"I never imagined a necromancer telling jokes," Jas said.

"There's a lot of misconceptions about us, but hey, what are we going to do? Admit to being necromancers so that we can challenge those stereotypes?" Alex asked rhetorically. "You're Jasmine, right?"

"Jas, yeah," Jas said.

"Hi, I'm Alex. Would you like to go out sometime?" They all stared at him. Danny, Sam, and Tuck all broke out laughing.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

"Good news, Danny: I don't have to kill you," Alex said. "Really, though, is anyone surprised? Especially with someone like Clockwork at your back." The real question was, why had clockwork saved him? Clockwork, while not cruel, did see into all of space and time, and to see all the pain and suffering of all creatures in all of time and not go crazy took a certain amount of callousness. Clockwork had plans for Daniel Fenton, Alex could tell. And perhaps he was to be a part of those plans.

"So, now what are you going to do?" Danny asked.

"Actually, our orders are to stay here and, uh, make sure you don't do anything evil," Alex said. "Hey, I trust you, but the powers that be feel it's better to be safe than sorry. So, Sam, have you thought about going out with me yet?"

"You asked Jas out last week," Sam said.

"Yeah, but I don't think she'll go out with me," Alex said.

"Gee, could that have anything to do with the fact that you _asked my mom out_ the first time you saw her?" Danny asked rhetorically.

"As I explained to your dad, _and_ the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, I was merely joking," Alex said smoothly. "Besides, your mom is hot."

Danny glared at him. "Please don't say that ever again."

Alex smiled. "For you, buddy, anything. Now that I know that we're not going to have to kill each other, I'd like to train against you. Think about it; you could really use skills that could help you against a necromancer."

"And why would you need skills that would help you against half-ghosts?" Danny asked.

"Oh, no reason," Alex said. "Say, would you mind horribly if something bad happened to Vlad Masters? Just a thought."

FIN

Author's Commentary (As If You Care)

Woo! That took bloody ages! That doesn't show here, because I'm submitting all the chapters at once, but damned if this didn't take several months. Or rather, I started it several months ago and forgot about it. I only seriously began work on this a week or two ago, but in that time I did nothing else, except for _Adrenaline_ (_Kim Possible_, romance, Kim/Ron).

The idea came so long ago that I don't even remember what inspired me to write this. I do remember that it felt more like a one shot than a chapter work, even though I could tell right off the bat that it was going to take bloody ages. The story was just too complicated to get across in a short fic, and yet if refused to order itself into chapters in my head. So, I just cut it into three roughly even pieces. I mean, I have made long one-shots before, but this was more than 12,500 words! That is pushing it just a tad.

Normally, I'd use this Commentary to shamelessly plug other stories I have written, but I haven't written anything about _Danny Phantom_ until now (I suppose I could plug _Adrenaline_, if you're into _Kim Possible_). And yes, I left this wide open for a sequel. Don't expect it soon, however. I have it planned, I just don't feel like it just yet. C'mon, I just finished this epic piece, you want me to start on another one right away?

What did you think of Alex? As my second published fanfic OC, I think I did a rather good job giving him a complex personality. I'm proud of Alex, truth be told. And no, I didn't realize that I had given all of his family members names beginning with "A" until they were all on paper. It was still early enough that I could have changed it if I wanted to, but I didn't feel like it. No secret messages there, sorry. In the name Sean Stevenson, however…my name is Shaun, and my dad's is Steven. What can I say? I remembered that I was writing under a pseudonym, and figured, what the heck? Use my own name once.

I hoped you liked it. Tell your friends. Please R&R. Etcetera, etcetera.


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